Low-Key Council Race Heads for the Polls : Politics: Richard Angel and David Sanchez portray themselves as independents in a campaign to fill the seat of the ousted mayor.

Voters go to the polls Tuesday to elect the man who will fill the City Council seat of former Mayor Stan Quintana, who was kicked out of office in a recall election three months ago.

In an extraordinarily low-key campaign, candidates Richard Angel and David Sanchez have rejected invitations to attack or even criticize each other’s positions on the issues.

Angel, 44, a California Department of Transportation highway maintenance worker, has emphasized instead his experience in city government, including four years as a planning commissioner and two years as a parks and recreation commissioner.

Sanchez, 31, a construction project manager for the county Community Development Commission, talks about expanding city services for children and young people and bringing new government-financed housing to the city.

Each portrays himself as “independent,” free of the vituperative disputes that have divided the current City Council. Neither claims the endorsement of any council member.

Both candidates are engaging in the kind of personal, door-to-door canvassing that previously has impressed South El Monte voters. Angel said his campaign committee is composed entirely of relatives. Sanchez’s committee is Citizens of South El Monte for Good Government, the group that conducted the recall campaign against Quintana.

Angel is critical of past council measures. He says that he would prefer to “iron things out” with business people before a proposed community development plan, involving eminent domain property seizures, is enacted.

The city’s 3-year-old redevelopment program has been tied up in litigation and negotiations with the county. The city Community Redevelopment Commission has agreed to forgo eminent domain procedures in the project’s first phase, a broad area between Rosemead Boulevard and Chico Avenue in the west end of the city.

But eminent domain is still an issue in the second phase, which involves five non-contiguous areas farther east.

“I don’t want to put anybody out of business,” Angel said. He also said he would have sought a public vote on an exclusive city contract with a trash removal company owned by a friend of Quintana.

Sanchez expressed doubts about the value of community development under current market conditions. “We’re surrounded by large retail outlets in neighboring cities,” he said.

Sanchez, who has been active in civic affairs, said the city should devote more resources to such efforts as the Latch Key Program, an after-school child-care program for working parents.

Though neither candidate would directly criticize the other, Sanchez’s campaign manager, former Councilman John Gonzalez, suggested that Angel is not totally independent.

“We feel he is just not clear of ties to Quintana and the council majority that supported Quintana,” Gonzalez said. “He had to have some ties to be appointed to the Planning Commission.”

Angel denied that council ties got him on the commission. “I turned in an application and I was appointed,” he said.

Quintana was recalled in February after being accused of “cronyism” and wastefulness, and of supporting the community redevelopment project over residents’ objections. He also was criticized for his involvement in a hit-and-run accident and falsifying a report to the police, for which he pleaded no-contest in January in Alhambra Municipal Court.

The polls will be open Tuesday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

City Council Election

David Sanchez, 31

Construction project manager for county redevelopment project

Member of city advisory councils, including one promoting better health in the city. Was active in the recall camapign against former Mayor Stan Quintana. Wants the city to devote more resources to youth and child-care programs.

Richard Angel, 44

Caltrans highway maintenance lead worker

Six years on city commissions, including four on the Planning Commission. Critical of the eminent domain provisions of proposed community redevelopment projects and of an exclusive city contract with a trash hauling firm.